Even as Nigel Farage gears up to celebrate sweeping gains in May 7’s local elections, questions continue about the £5m donation he received from Thai-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne – a record-breaking payout that he failed to declare to parliamentary authorities.
Reform’s leader pulled out of a planned appearance on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg rather than discuss how and why he took the money, leading to widespread derision and the coining of the nickname Nacho, standing for Nigel Always Chickens Out.
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Farage’s non-appearance on the BBC show came as an embarrassment to his GB News colleague Martin Daubney. Just as Kuenssberg was advising viewers that he would not be appearing as “his team told us he’s changed his mind”, the hapless Daubney tweeted a photo of the show’s original line-up, showing Farage with Zack Polanski, Kemi Badenoch and Labour’s Heidi Alexander, and taunted the prime minister for not turning up.
He added the message: “Where’s Keir Starmer? The Tories, Reform and Greens have put up their leaders for the final big media round… are they keeping him in the cupboard?” Yes, imagine a party leader being so cowardly that he ducks a prestigious TV appearance!
Meanwhile, Reform has so far failed to respond to a series of questions about the affair put to them by The New World’s James Ball.
These included: “You have stated that the £5m personal contribution… was for your personal security. Do you plan to disclose top-line expense receipts to show the funds have not been used for any other purpose, including but not confined to your recent £215,000 investment in a cryptocurrency company operated by the former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, or for the £885,000 house in Clacton bought in late 2024 by your partner Laure Ferrari?”
Another said: “You have previously stated that on police advice, you hold no parliamentary surgeries, but the police denied ever issuing you with that advice. Given that we now know you have a large private security budget, why are you unable to hold constituency surgeries?”
